


Back Under the Stars, Back Into Your Arms

by orphan_account



Series: The World Was Okay Again [2]
Category: The Maze Runner Series- James Dashner
Genre: Alternate Universe- Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe- Time Travel, Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-17
Updated: 2015-02-17
Packaged: 2018-03-13 10:58:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3379031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Minho gives Thomas a "birthday" present (as though Thomas knew when his birthday was anyway), Thomas had no idea what he was supposed to do with it. </p><p>Until it took him to where it started, and even then he had no idea what he was supposed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Back Under the Stars, Back Into Your Arms

“Happy birthday, shank.” Minho dropped down beside Thomas and smiled at him lightly.

“Since when is it my birthday?” Thomas asked, blinking at him. “I don’t remember when it is, how would you even know?”

“I’ve decided your birthday is today because I’ve got something for you, shank. Got a problem?” Minho smirked at him and tossed the poorly wrapped present towards him. Thomas struggled to catch it and stared down at it.

“What is it?” He asked, crinkling his eyebrows.

“Open it, slint head. You’ll see.” Minho stood back up and walked off, not bothering to see Thomas actually open it. He ripped the package open, and stared down at the small, golden necklace in his hands. It had a large dial on it, with numbers all around it. He squinted to see what they were, but the numbers meant nothing to him.

“What the shuck?” He asked quietly, climbing to his feet and walking off towards Minho. The Asian boy was smiling at him, Brenda looking slightly upset at his side.

“What is this?” Thomas asked, holding the necklace closer to Minho’s face. Minho’s smile simply got larger and became a more profound smirk.

“When the time is right, Tommy boy, you’ll know exactly what that is. And you’ll love it.” Minho laid back against the green grass and closed his eyes.

Thomas crinkled his nose and glanced back down at the odd necklace.

 

“Have you tried spinning the dial to a number?” Frypan asked Thomas suddenly. The chief had watched Thomas staring at the necklace for the last thirty minutes straight.

“Spin the dial? Huh, why didn’t I think of that?” Thomas scoffed. “What kind of slint head do you think I am? Of course I’ve tried spinning it, I’ve spun it a thousand times!”

“No need to be a shank about it, was just trying to help.” Frypan shot Thomas a pretty nasty look before stomping away. Thomas sighed, staring at the thing and wishing- not for the first time- that Newt was still around. He would know what to do, and even if he didn’t he would have known exactly what to say to make Thomas feel better.

The necklace grew warm in Thomas’ hand and he looked down at in surprise. It was glowing, turning from a dark golden to bright, burning blue. It was getting very hot now and Thomas had to resist the urge to drop it. He spun the dial twice, and felt the wind blowing at its full of strength. Everything around him was blurred, Thomas couldn’t see anything.

Then it was dark, a slight light coming from the distance, but the darkness was nearly overwhelming. It was warm when all signs pointed to it being cold. He could hear noises he recognized, smell some very familiar scents. All the signs pointed to where he was, but Thomas couldn’t bring himself to believe it. It wasn’t possible.

“You alright there, Tommy?” The voice called over to him, the voice knocking all the wind out of him. He felt his body begin to shake and collapsed to the ground fully, now unable to hold himself up. “Tommy?”

Thomas rolled onto his back and looked up at the blond boy standing in front of him, beautiful and perfect in every way. He showed no signs of the Flare, his eyes will full of life and sanity. His face was contorted in confusion and concern. Thomas wanted to kiss it all off of him.

Thomas wonderful momentarily how long Minho had known, if Minho had always known, but the questions were all lost just looking up at Newt’s face.

“I-” Thomas attempted to speak but his throat had gone completely dry. This was impossible, Newt was dead, Thomas had been the one to kill him. There was no logic way that Thomas could be sitting here in a Glade yet to be destroyed by Greivers, yet to have seen the Ending.

He looked down at the necklace, still a pale blue and wondered why Minho would give him something to torture him so much? Send him back in time to relive all the pain? It was more than cruel, it was inhumane.

Unless Minho had known exactly what this thing would do (which he must have, there was no other explanation for how he acted) and Thomas was here to protect Newt. BUT HOW? Thomas couldn’t keep Newt from being exposed to the Flare, couldn’t keep him in the Maze forever so that the Greivers could get him sooner. There was nobody but the Glade were Newt would be safe from the Flare and he’d die here anyway.

“Newt...” The word left Thomas’ mouth before he could stop it and he knew he was staring. He couldn’t get enough of Newt’s face, a face that Thomas was sure he’d only ever see again in his nightmares. “I don’t know what they want me to do. I don’t know.”

“What? What who wants you to do?” Newt asked, his brow crinkling as he knelt down beside the dark haired boy. Thomas was failing miserably at holding back his tears and the feeling of Newt’s arm wrapping around him just caused him to loose all control. “Do you mean WICKED? Because we’re getting out of here tomorrow and hopefully it’ll all be over.”

“No!” Thomas buried his face into Newt’s chest, the tears coming face and without hesitation now. “You can’t leave the Maze, Newt. You can’t, I won’t let you, I won’t.”

“Tommy, this was your idea...” Newt began, running fingers through Thomas’ hair. Thomas could feel the look of confusion and horror on the older boys’ face but it only made everything worse. How dare Minho send him here, to feel Newt touch him only to experience all the things that had broken him inside all over again? Was this some sort of sick revenge for killing Newt? Had Minho figured it all out and was now punishing him in the worse way he could possibly imagine?

“If you leave this Maze, Newt, you die. You die and I can’t- I won’t let that...” Thomas couldn’t get his words out anymore, the sobs having complete control over him now. “I can’t let that happen. Not again.”

“Again?” Newt pulled away from Thomas and stared him straight in the eye. “What are you bloody on about, Tommy?”

The necklace in Thomas’ hands was warm again but he paid it no attention this time. “I’ve seen it, Newt, I’ve- I’ve done bad things. Really bad things, I can’t be forgiven for them. I can’t do things again, okay, so we’re not leaving. I can protect you here, I can’t protect you from what’s waiting out there.”

“What’s waiting out there, Tommy? Talk to me.” Newt gripped Thomas’ shoulders and forced him to meet his eyes, but Thomas couldn’t talk to him. Right now, breathing alone was too much work, his lungs were failing him. Thomas was quite sure he was going to die, but if he died right here right now, staring Newt in the eyes, then he would take it.

“You... Trusted.... Me.” Thomas managed to gasp out before collapsing forward into Newt’s arms. Newt stroked his hair and whispered little reassuring nothings in Thomas’ ear until the dark haired boy felt as though he could breath again. Newt had that effect on him, even in the nightmares.

“Tell me what’s going on.” Newt asked, leaning away so that they made contact but not far enough away that the physical contact between the two boys was broken. Thomas wondered momentarily if Newt wanted him too, loved him the way Thomas loved him but he shook himself from those thoughts. He couldn’t allow himself those thoughts because they would just make things worse.

Newt’s death- murder- had been bad enough the first time and Thomas hadn’t even known that he was in love until later, but Newt plagued his dreams in every imaginable fashion. Until the hallucations started and Thomas saw Newt everywhere. The only thing worse than when the hallucations started was when they stopped. Because then, Newt really was gone.

Yet here he was, sitting right in front of Thomas, his eyes full of concern and love and Thomas knew full well that he was in love with boy. Teresa and Brenda had faded away long ago and being back in the Glade didn’t change the way Thomas felt. Except now he got to kill Newt the boy he was in love with not just Newt his best friend. And he couldn’t do it, he wouldn’t.

The necklace was burning holes into Thomas’ hands and he finally looked down at it. The dial was spinning wildly on its own accord and Thomas was pretty sure he was going to pass out. Because now he saw it, his chance. He could take Newt with him to the Safe Haven, everybody there was Immune and wouldn’t be able to pass on the Flare. If Thomas went back and Newt came with him, Newt would live.

“Come with me. I can safe you, Newt. I need you to come.” Thomas gripped Newt’s shirt tightly, resting their forehead together. He took in the scent that was Newt, the scent he would get random whiffs of during the day and it would leave him breathless. He’d been sensing Newt for so long, now he would do anything he could save him.

“Leave? Now? You just said you won’t let me leave-” Newt began but Thomas cut him off with a quick shake of the head.

“I can take you somewhere safe. You need to trust me, Newt.” Thomas gasped out, still finding it a struggle to air to his lungs. “Do you trust me?”

“I trust you, Tommy, but I don’t understand.” Newt mumbled, his face growing in colour. They were so close together that Thomas could count every freckle on Newt’s pale skin. “Why are you being like this? What’s going on?”

“I can’t... You’ll hate me.” Thomas shook his head, lowering his gaze in embarrassment. “You asked me to do something and I don’t think you meant it. Or you did, but you don’t right now.” Then Thomas remembered what Newt had told him, about his leg. “Did you really jump off the Maze?”

Newt’s face paled even more significantly and he pulled away. “How did you- Who told you-?”

“You told me, Newt. Just not yet.” Thomas shook his head. “You telling me that began the worst moment of my life, so I think I should ask you if you want to die. Not to be a shank, but I’m giving you a choice now. Live or die.”

“I don’t..” Tears littered Newt’s eyes and he was guarded now.

“Just tell me the truth. If you trust me, Newt, you can do that.” Thomas reached out to his hand, stroking over the skin. Newt shuddered slightly and leaned back towards Thomas, not adding anymore contact but opening up the air between them.

“I don’t know what I want, Tommy. You’ve changed things.” Newt replied and that was what Thomas needed to hear from him. He wasn’t going to let Newt die, he was going to keep the boy alive at all costs.

“So come with me, right now.” Thomas mumbled, closing the space between them so that their noses brushed against each other. Newt inhaled deeply and his eyes went wider than Thomas had ever seen them go. Now if he just stop imaging that face covered in blood, a single bullet wound in the head everything would be better. “Please, Newt, please.”

Newt gave a singularly nod and Thomas spun the dial. As the wind began to blow around, the darkness taking over, Thomas closed that last inch between them and pressed their lips together. He heard Newt gasp into them and then the light nearly blinded them both.

“I told you he’d know what to do.” Minho’s voice yanked Thomas away from the nearly overwhelming sensation that was Newt. The Gladers that were left were all standing around them, Thomas and Newt having landed right in the middle of the Common Area.

Newt was looking around, eyes huge with fear and confusion. “Where the bloody shuck are we?”

“We’ve got a lot to explain to you.”

 

 

Newt, Minho and Thomas all cried while the story was being explained to Newt and then Newt had to pulled Minho off of Thomas when he got to the part about shooting Newt. (Apparently he HADN’T known the whole story, after all.)

“You did the right thing.” Newt assured a sobbing Thomas. “It’s what I wanted, you did the right thing.”

Newt kissed him quickly- more than a few times- before Thomas was able to fully calm himself down. He looked up at Minho, who was still glaring at him, and inhaled deeply. “Where did you find the necklace thing?”

Minho shrugged. “Found it. Had a note attached. Claimed it was for ‘Mr Thomas’ and that he’d ‘know what to do’. Guess you did.”

“Nah, it didn’t. Just kept guessing.” Thomas shrugged, smiling up at Newt but was surprise to see that the blond boy looked mad.

“You realize it was probably from WICKED, right? A Variable?” Newt practically growled. Minho raised an eyebrow and smirked.

“Best Variable I’ve ever seen. Got you back.” Minho said coldly, but eyes were still wet with tears.

“You’re the Glue, Newt. We need you.”


End file.
